Method of reconditioning a metal drum



May 12, 1970 P. D. LAMMERS ET 3,5'10,93z

METHOD OF RECONDITIONING A METAL DRUM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 8. 1967 FIG-2 INVENTORS PAUL o. LAMMERS a DELNO L. SCOTT N34 WMM5 45 40 I ATTORNEYS May 12, 1970 P. D. LAMMERS ET AL 3,510,932

METHOD OF RECONDITIONING A METAL DRUM Filed Nov. 8, 1967 v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,510,932 METHOD OF RECONDITIONIN G A METAL DRUM Paul D. Lammers, Oakwood, and Delno L. Scott, Dayton, Ohio, assignors to Lammers Barrel Corp., Dayton, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Nov. 8, 1967, Ser. No. 681,493 Int. Cl. B22d 19/10; B23p 7/00 US. Cl. 29-401 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In the art of reconditioning steel drums, it is frequently necessary to remove one end cover of a drum if the drum cannot be cleaned through the bunghole so that the entire inner surfaces of the cylindrical body and both end covers can be cleaned, as for example, by sandblasting, shotblasting or burning off the deposit on the inner surfaces. The end covers of a tight head steel drum are commonly secured to the cylindrical body by folding over and crimping the peripheral edge portion of each end cover and the adjacent end portion of the body to form a crimp sealed rim or chime which is fluid-tight.

To remove an end cover of a tight head drum, commonly the chime is partially unfolded and the folded over end portion of the drum body is sheared after which the end cover is pulled from the body. After cleaning the inner surface of the drum, it may be converted to an open head drum and provided with a removable end cover or a new cover may be crimped sealed on the open end of the drum. Sometimes the separated end cover is cleaned and reinserted into the end portion of the body and the inner cylindrical rim portion of the end cover is welded to the surrounding cylindrical end portion of the body. The unfolded portion of the rim is then reformed downwardly against the outer surface of the end portion of the body thereby covering the weld. One problem with the above method for converting a tight head drum into an open head drum or the above method of removing and replacing an end cover of a tight head drum is that a once reconditioned drum can be easily reconditioned again and again without shortening the overall length of the drum during each reconditioning operation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a reconditioned drum and an improved method for reconditioning the drum so that it can be reconditioned over and over without significantly changing the overall length of the drum and thus without changing the fluid capacity of the drum. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, a drum is placed within a fixture and rotated while an end cover of the drum is removed by grinding or severing the radially extending flange portion of the chime so that the inner cylindrical chime portion of the cover is separated from the outer cylindrical chime portion which remains folded over the end portion of the body.

After the end cover is removed and the inner surface of the end covers and the cylindrical body is straightened and cleaned by blasting, burning or some other cleaning See means, the cylindrical chime portion of the cover is flared outwardly by a slight amount, and the end cover is pressed back into the end portion of the drum body. The drum is then placed within a welding fixture which rotates the drum while a welding head joins the inner cylindrical chime portion of the removed cover back to the outer cylindrical chime portion to restore the integrity of the chime and thereby reproduce a positive fluid-tight seam. When it is desired to recondition the drum again, the weld forming the end surface of the chime is simply removed by the grinding or a cutting operation, and the cleaning and welding operations are repeated.

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description, the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an elevational view of grinding apparatus for detaching an end cover of a drum from its cylindrical body and having portions broken away to show internal construction;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary elevational view taken generally along the line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary radial section through a chime of a typical drum;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4 and illustrating the grinding operation for detaching an end cover from the drum body;

FIG. 6 is an elevational view of welding apparatus for rejoining the removed end cover to the drum body;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 6 illustrating the welding operation;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary radial section through the chime of the drum and showing the cover prior to being reinserted within the drum body; and

FIG. 9 is a view similar to FIG. 4 and illustrating the final welded connection of the end cover to the drum body.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a grinding apparatus which includes a frame 15 supported by a pair of fixed axle wheels 16 and a single caster wheel 17. A set of vertically aligned bearings 18 and 20 are mounted on the frame 15 and support a vertically extending shaft 22. A rotary table 25 is mounted on the upper end portion of the shaft 22 and has four uniformly spaced locating studs 26 which are adjustably positioned to engage and center the lower end portion of a drum 30 placed on the table 25. The drum 30 is rigidly secured to the table 25 by a clamping mechanism 32 including a vertically extending post 33 which is mounted on the table 25 and cooperates with a pair of diametrically spaced posts 34 to support a pair of clamping arms 35 pivotally connected to the post 33 by a screw 36. A shoe member 40 (FIG. 2) is pivotally mounted on each arm 35 by a bolt 41, and each shoe member 40 includes a pair of blocks 43 which engage the outer cylindrical surface of the drum.

An arm 45 (FIG. 3) includes an adjustable eye-bolt 46 which is pivotally connected to the forward end of one of the arms 35 by a pin 47. A handle 50 is mounted on a shaft 51 supported by the arm 45, and a circular cam 52 is eccentrically mounted on the shaft 51. An arm 55 (FIG. 3) is pivotally mounted on the other arm 35 by a pin 56 and has a hooked-shaped end portion 58 which engages the cam 52 to form a latch. Thus by rotating the handle 50, the arms 35 are pulled together causing the shoe members 40 to grip opposite sides of the drum 30 and thereby secure the drum to the table. When the latch is released, the arms 45 and 55 may be 3 pivoted upwardly to generally vertical positions, and the arms may be moved outwardly until they engage corresponding stops 61 projecting upwardly from the upper ends of the posts 34 so that the drum 30 can be easily placed on or removed from the table 25.

The table 25 and clamping mechanism 32 are rotated by a motor 65 which is supported by a frame member 66 and connected by a belt drive 67 to a speed reducer 68 having an output shaft connected by a belt drive 70 to a pulley 7 1 mounted on the shaft 22 between the bearings 18 and 20. A frame member 74 projects upwardly from the frame member 66 and supports a motor 75 mounted on a carriage 76 which is vertically adjustable by turning a hand wheel 77. A cup-shaped grinding wheel 80 is mounted on the lower end portion of the vertical shaft of the motor 75.

Referring to FIG. 4, a typical construction of a drum 30 includes a cylindrical body and a pair of end covers 86. Commonly, each end cover 86 is joined and sealed to the body 85 by an interfitting, folded and crimped structure which forms an annular rim or chime 90. Each chime 90 is formed by a cylindrical chime portion 91 of the end cover 86 lying adjacent the inner cylindrical surface 92 of the adjacent end portion 93 of the body 85. A flange portion 95 extends radially outwardly from the cylindrical chime portion 91 and joins with an outer cylindrical chime portion 96 which surrounds a folded back cylindrical body portion 98 integrally connected to the end portion 93 of the body 85 by a radially exttnding flange portion 99. Each end cover 86 also includes an intermediate cylindrical chime portion 101 which connects to the outer cylindrical chime portion 96 by a radial flange portion 102 and extends between the end portion 93 and cylindrical chime portion 98 of the drum body 85.

In accordance with the invention, one of the end covers 86 is detached from the body 85 of the drum 30 by moving the rotating grinding wheel 80 downwardly while the drum 30 is being rotated until the flange portion 95 of the end cover 86 is completely removed when the grinding wheel reaches a plane 103 (FIG. 4) adjacent the upper end surface of the flange portion 99. The grinding wheel 80 is then retracted after which the end cover 86 is pulled or jarred loose from the drum body 85, as for example, with a suitable magnet, rubber hammer, air pressure, etc.

After the inner surface of the drum body 85 and end covers 86 are suitably clean such as by the blasting or burning operation mentioned above, the cylindrical chime portion 91 of the removed cover 86 is flared outwardly very slightly (exaggerated in FIG. 8) by a suitable expander (not shown). The end cover 86 is then pressed back into the end portion 93 of the drum body 85, and the inner cylindrical chime portion 91 of the end cover 86 is rejoined with the outer cylindrical chime portion 96 by a peripheral bead 105.

The welding operation is performed by the welding apparatus shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. This apparatus includes a frame supported by a pair of fixed axle wheels '111 and a caster wheel 112. The frame 110 supports a rotary table and clamping mechanism 116 constructed substantially the same as the table 25 and clamping mechanism 32 described above for the grinding apparatus shown in FIGS. l-3. The table 115 and clamping mechanism 116, however, are supported by an inclined shaft 118 which is driven by a motor (not shown) through a speed reducer 120 and belt drives 1121 and 122.

A frame member 124 extends upwardly from the frame member 110 and supports a welding mechanism 125 which includes a welding head 126 mounted on a universally adjustable support 128. Preferably, the welding mechanism 125 is of the submerged arc-type wherein a filler wire 130 is continuously fed from a rotatable coil 132 through the center of a tubular electrode 135 which also serves as a nozzle for an inert gas.

As shown in FIG. 7, the electrode 135 is positioned by adjusting the support i128 so that the wire 130 is fed directly onto the upper edge of the chime 90 of the drum 30. The precise positioning of the electrode 135 relative to the chime 90 is maintained during rotation of the drum 30 by a guide roller supported by a U-shaped block 142 mounted on the end of a threaded shaft 143 adjustably secured to an arm 1 44 clamped on the electrode 135. The roller 140 engages the inner surface of the cylindrical chime portion 91 slightly ahead of the electrode 135.

Both the grinding apparatus and the welding apparatus are adapted to accommodate drums of various sizes such as a smaller drum 30'. For the smaller drum 30, the locating studs 26 are adjusted inwardly on the tables 25 and 115, and spacer blocks are mounted on the shoe members 40 of the clamping mechanism 32 and 116. As shown in FIG. 1, the clamping of the grinding wheel 80 is sufliciently large to accommodate drums of various sizes.

From the drawings and the above description, it can be seen that the removal and reassembly of an end cover 86 on the body 85 of a drum in accordance with the invention provides several desirable features and advantages. For example, the detachment of the inner cylindrical chime portion 91 of the end cover 86 from the outer chime portion 96 by grinding away the flange portion 95, enables the end cover 86 to be easily removed from the drum body 85 without unfolding the chime portions 96, 98 and 101. Furthermore, after the end cover 86 is reassembled and the inner chime portion 91 is rejoined to the outer chime portion 96 by the weld bead 105, the appearance of the drum is substantially the same as its original appearance, and in addition, a positive fluid-tight seal is obtained between the end cover 86- and drum body 85.

An important feature of a drum reconditioned in accordance with the invention is that when it is desired to recondition a previously reconditioned drum, the weld bead 105 is merely removed by the grinding wheel 80 and the disassembly, cleaning, reassembly and welding operations are repeated. It has been determined that the method of the invention will enable a drum to be reconditioned a number of times without significantly affecting the strength of the drum. Moreover, the length of the drum remains substantially the same after each reconditioning operation so that the capacity of the drum will remain constant.

While the method and reconditioned drum herein described constitute preferred embodiments of the invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise method and drum shown, and that changes may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, instead of grinding away either part or all of the flange portion 95, the chime 90' could be severed by cutting the flange portion 95 or cutting or grinding the outer cylindrical portion 96 or flange portion 102.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of reconditioning a metal drum having a generally cylindrical body and opposite circular end covers with at least one of said end covers having a peripheral chime including a first portion extending along the inner end surface of said body and integrally connected by a radially extending flange to a second portion secured to the outer end portion of the body, comprising the steps of rotating said drum or its axis and removing at least a portion of said flange while leaving said second portion secured to said body, removing the cover from the body for cleaning of the separated body and cover, replacing the cover on the open end of the body, and replacing the removed portion of said flange with a weld 5 bead while rotating said drum on its axis for connecting said first portion of said chime to said second portion.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein all of said flange is removed to form substantially coplanar end surfaces of said first and second portions of said chime substantially flush with the end surface of said body, and the entire said flange is replaced with a weld bead extending between said end surfaces of said first and second portions of said chime.

3. A method as defined in claim 2 wherein said step of removing said flange comprises moving a grinding wheel axially into engagement with said flange.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,381,435 6/1921 Rude 22067 2,175,411 10/1939 Rheem.

2,209,209 7/ 1940 Ruby 29-426 2,943,386 7/ 1960 Katz 29-401 JOHN F. CAMPBELL, Primary Examiner 10 D. C. REILEY, Assistant Examiner us. 01. X.R. 

